The details of this chart are less important than the process of creating it. After trying both in the classroom and reading/watching how others use different techniques in the classroom, get together with a few other educators and fill out your own chart. Here's a blank chart we give out as a part of a Think-Pair-Share.
I'd caution taking an either or position and recommend a balanced one. Wouldn't it be nice for students to learn skills for a range of situations and how to reflect on them to determine if a different approach might be better for themselves or their group? Let's mix Cain, Shirky, Vygotsky, etc. to come up with a toolbox teachers can use to fit the context of their subject, students, and classroom.
Affordances
Constraints
Group Work
Skills we will need for many workplaces, community groups, etc.
For complex problems, group brainstorming is more successful than individual
More comfortable for extroverts
Majority of students want to work with others
Opportunity for students to be teachers
Opportunity for students to be leaders
Opportunity to learn/practice group and interpersonal skills
Peer feedback built in
Metaphors to consider: barn raising, sewing circle or quilting bee, art/architecture/woodworking studio, WoW guild or raiding party, ...
Group Work
Often just the equivalent of parallel play or X, not collaboration
Mindless "collaboration" can be detrimental to students developing collaboration skills and understanding when collaboration is a benefit and when it comes at a real cost
Depending on the context, individual brainstorming can be more productive
Can be harder to grade/assess (see teamwork rubric below)
Majority of students come with a limited skill set for working collaboratively with others
Requires real planning, time, and effort on the teachers part - most students don't walk in the door knowing how to do it well
Individual Work
More comfortable for introverts
Individual thinking and metacognition plays a role in the creative process
Generalizes Ericsson’s research shows it takes 10,000 hours of solo practice to become an expert (though that would be for individual skill - playing in a band or on a team would be a different case)
"Accountability" can be easier. Individual responsibility
Easier to develop a sense of ownership
Individual Work
Is there anything that is truly individual? Aren't there all sorts of prior knowledge (and conversations) that shape our thinking? At that moment it may be individual, but all the pieces we are using for our thinking come from somewhere.
Affordances & Constraints - Group/Individual Work
The details of this chart are less important than the process of creating it. After trying both in the classroom and reading/watching how others use different techniques in the classroom, get together with a few other educators and fill out your own chart. Here's a blank chart we give out as a part of a Think-Pair-Share.
I'd caution taking an either or position and recommend a balanced one. Wouldn't it be nice for students to learn skills for a range of situations and how to reflect on them to determine if a different approach might be better for themselves or their group? Let's mix Cain, Shirky, Vygotsky, etc. to come up with a toolbox teachers can use to fit the context of their subject, students, and classroom.
Related Pages:
Related Resources:
Balancedtech's Favorite Links on Collaboration from Diigo
Balancedtech's Favorite Links on Knowledge_Building from Diigo